The Mystery of the Uninvited Ghost

loudly.
    Trixie hugged him. “I’ll help, too.”
    Even Mr. and Mrs. Belden joined in the search. Beldens moved out over the whole farm till they had covered all the places Bobby ever played. But—no scooter.
    Trixie called the Lynches. Di reported that servants, and family, too, had been unable to find a trace of all the missing “wheels” at their house. The same report came from Honey.
    Have you called the police?” Trixie asked Honey. We didn’t because one beat-up scooter wasn’t valuable enough to bother the sergeant about—”
    Trixie was interrupted by a howl from Bobby. “ Bother /” He ran from the room, sobbing, “Moms, Trixie says I’m a bother!”
    “I’ll call you back, Honey,” Trixie said hastily. “But —did you call the police?” The answer was yes.

Teed’s and Wheels • 12

    CRABAPPLE FARM couldn’t be neglected, and neither could the preparations for Juliana’s wedding and the search for Dan. Trixie had never felt more frustiated —there just weren’t enough days in the week or hours in each day. Bobby’s gloom settled over the Belden homelife like smog in a valley.
    In the Wheeler stable, Regan was silent and withdrawn. Mr. Maypenny quit cooking for himself and spent all his time riding old Spartan on the crisscross of trails in the game preserve. Miss Trask had his food delivered from Manor House, and both Trixie and Di brought him snacks from their homes when they visited his cottage daily.
    With loving concern, the Bob-Whites tried to keep problems from dampening Juliana’s joy. The bower was set in the garden, between the birdbath and the summerhouse. Gifts were received and entered in the bride’s record book. Juliana was already writing her thank-you notes and packing trunks. The cook was making festive foods and storing them in the freezers.
    Ella Kline worked alone in the sewing room most of the time. She was looking forward to returning to her room at the inn.
    “Will you get your wheelchair back?” Trixie asked. Ella smiled. “Yes. And the money from Miss Ryks will take care of my first payment.”
    “Did you know Miss Ryks before she came to the inn?” Trixie asked.
    No,” Ella answered. “I talked to her nephew about the wheelchair. As a matter of fact, I’ve never seen her, but I did see her stretcher carried to room two-fourteen. It’s unusual to have an ambulance arrive at the inn, and everybody watched. I got the impression of a scrawny little person.”
    “Scrawny? Little?” Trixie was amazed. Watching Miss Ryks get out of the taxi, Trixie had thought that she had broader shoulders and was taller than most women. Her hands were large, and so was her nose. Trixie couldn’t wait to discuss this with Honey and Hallie.
    Yet when Trixie did see Honey, neither of them mentioned Miss Ryks. They could only worry about Dan. Had he gone back to the streets of the city?
    Had he been kidnapped? Was he lying hurt—or worse —in the forest? Sergeant Molinson was checking on all of those possibilities.
    In their sleuthing, none of the boys had been able to turn up a real clue, though they did report having seen strange boys hanging around. The strangers wore cowboy boots like those Dan had worn when he first came to the area. One boy—the shortest, scrawniest one of the group—wore a western-style hat shoved back on his head. Jim said, “I suppose he thinks it makes him look tougher.”
    Trixie almost tripped over that same young man s boots one afternoon when she went into Wimpy’s. He was wearing the hat and staring through the window at tire alley beyond the parking lot.
    Trixie stared in the same direction. There was the usual clutter of jalopies and family vehicles in the parking lot, but the boy wasn’t looking at these. His head was turned toward a Teed pickup truck pulling out of the alley.
    When the truck turned the comer, the boy made an okay sign with his finger and thumb and clumped out of the room. He was followed by four older boys, all wearing the same kind of cowboy boots.
    Trixie hurried to the booth where the Bob-Whites and Hallie sat. In a loud whisper, she said, “They were here! Dan’s gang!”
    “We saw them.” Jim spoke for Brian and Mart as well as himself. The three looked tired. Trixie knew that her brothers were steadily losing both sleep and
    appetite, and she suspected the same was true of Jim.
    “That track..,“Hallie said cautiously. After Trixie’s outburst in the parking lot, Teed’s had been a taboo